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Development of predictive electronic structure methods and their application to atmospheric chemistry, combustion, and biologically relevant systems

DEVELOPMENT OF PREDICTIVE ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE METHODS
AND THEIR APPLICATION TO ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY, COMBUSTION,
AND BIOLOGICALLY RELEVANT SYSTEMS
by
Evgeny Epifanovskiy
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(CHEMISTRY)
May 2011
Copyright 2011 Evgeny Epifanovskiy

This work demonstrates electronic structure techniques that enable predictive modeling of the properties of biologically relevant species. Chapters 2 and 3 present studies of the electronically excited and detached states of the chromophore of the green fluorescent protein, the mechanism of its cis-trans isomerization, and the effect of oxidation. The bright excited ππ∗ state of the chromophore in the gas phase located at 2.6 eV is found to have an autoionizing resonance nature as it lies above the electron detachment level at 2.4 eV. The calculation of the barrier for the ground-state cis-trans isomerization of the chromophore yields 14.8 kcal/mol, which agrees with an experimental value of 15.4 kcal/mol; the electronic correlation and solvent stabilization are shown to have an important effect. In Chapter 3, a one-photon two-electron mechanism is proposed to explain the experimentally observed oxidative reddening of the chromophore. Chapter 4 considers the excited states of uracil. It demonstrates the role of the one-electron basis set and triples excitations in obtaining the converged values of the excitation energies of the nπ∗ and ππ∗ states. The effects of the solvent and protein environment are included in some of the models.; Chapter 5 describes an implementation of the algorithm for locating and exploring intersection seams between potential energy surfaces. The theory is illustrated with examples from atmospheric and combustion chemistry.

DEVELOPMENT OF PREDICTIVE ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE METHODS
AND THEIR APPLICATION TO ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY, COMBUSTION,
AND BIOLOGICALLY RELEVANT SYSTEMS
by
Evgeny Epifanovskiy
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(CHEMISTRY)
May 2011
Copyright 2011 Evgeny Epifanovskiy